How Kaavya Got Published, Got Caught, and Got a Reputation

Like many of my writer friends, if the traffic on my e-loops can be believed, I have been obsessing over the continuing saga of Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore who signed a $500 large publishing contract with Little, Brown, made her debut in hardcover, and then was accused of plagiarism. (That’s the Cliff’s Notes version–read the whole icky saga at Wikipedia if you’re slack on the details)

I feel for her. I’d hate to be 19 and subject to that kind of media firestorm. But then again, I’d set myself on fire before I’d do what I believe she did, which is rip off a bunch of other authors–albeit through paraphrase–and present the results as my own work.

I wish I could give her the benefit, but that’s where my teaching experience lends me a heaping dose of skepticism. The students I teach have no clue about plagiarism. None. And it’s not that I don’t hammer in the point that copying is stealing ad infinitum the entire time we’re doing research papers. We’re talking about masses of teenagers who truly believe that “It’s not cheating if you don’t get caught,” who download free music off the Internet, who buy mix CDs at flea markets and don’t think a thing about the original artists’ royalties. As long as it’s cheap and they can get away with it, well, it’s theirs to get away with. Kaavya Viswanathan, whose parents paid an Ivy League admissions prep group to polish her Harvard application, may fall in the same boat. “By any means necessary” takes on a whole different flavor when you’re talking a Harvard education and the kind of money it must take to do things like hire Ivy League admissions prep groups.

I don’t believe her. I don’t respect people who are so influenced by power and the trappings thereof that having a certain name on a college sheepskin is the ne plus ultra of existence. I’m glad I didn’t buy her book.

Mostly, though, I’m glad that when I write, the words are mine. I may not have a publishing contract (yet), but I have my own life, unscripted by admissions prep groups and book packagers, and the self-respect to go with it.